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You hear it all the time “It doesn’t matter where you build your startup.”, or “If you don’t build your startup in Silicon Valley, you don’t want to win bad enough”. Either way, Robert Scoble left a very thoughtful answer arguing for the types of things that happen in the valley that definitely gives you an advantage.

MOUNTAIN VIEW, CALIFORNIA: Howard University freshman Alanna Walton knew something was different about the professor teaching her introduction to computer science course. First, there was her name: Professor Sabrina. She was an African American woman, kept office hours until 2 a.m. if that's what it took to see everyone, and had an additional title: Google In Residence. ``It was an awesome class,'' said Alanna who has already chosen her major at the Washington D.C.-based university: computer science.

MOUNTAIN VIEW, CALIFORNIA: Howard University freshman Alanna Walton knew something was different about the professor teaching her introduction to computer science course. First, there was her name: Professor Sabrina. She was an African American woman, kept office hours until 2 a.m. if that's what it took to see everyone, and had an additional title: Google In Residence. ``It was an awesome class,'' said Alanna who has already chosen her major at the Washington D.C.-based university: computer science.

Silicon Valley was all aflutter Monday night when the titans of tech gathered at San Francisco's War Memorial Opera House. There were there to see HBO's US premier of Game of Thrones season 5, and rub elbows with the show's stars.

TORONTO — Royal Bank of Canada wants to team up with Silicon Valley’s brightest talent to position itself at the forefront of new financial technologies, Vice President of Innovation Gabriel Woo said in an interview.
The bank, Canada’s biggest lender, has launched an “innovation lab” in Silicon Valley, where it will identify and work with local “fintech” start-ups, Woo said on Wednesday. It has already opened similar facilities in Toronto, London, Luxembourg, New York and Orlando, Florida.

Benjamin Zhang/Business InsiderAt the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas this week, we've seen the unveiling of Chevy's electric car, heard Ford say its going to go big on self-driving technology, and learned that General Motors bought a big stake in a ride sharing app.

Innovation is the key driver of U.S. economic competitiveness and job creation. That is why it is a key pillar of the Department of Commerce’s innovation agenda. On Monday, U.S. Secretary of Commerce Penny Pritzker made her first trip as Secretary to Silicon Valley to advance the Obama Administration’s efforts to encourage innovation.Secretary Pritzker made her first stop in Sunnyvale at the Plug and Play Tech Center, a business accelerator for tech startups. After touring Plug and Play, Secretary Pritzker delivered remarks at an event hosted by the Churchill Club, highlighting the Administration’s commitment to spurring U.S. economic growth, innovation, and competitiveness. She described the Commerce Department’s work to invest in digital infrastructure, strengthen intellectual property protections, and support advanced manufacturing, among other initiatives.Secretary Pritzker also announced two new Commerce efforts to unleash more federal data for entrepreneurs and businesses, which are being spearheaded by the Department’s National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the Census Bureau. NOAA has released a Request for Information to explore the feasibility of a public-private partnership to release more of the 20 terabytes of environmental and weather data that the agency collects each day. And the Census Explorer, an interactive map of demographics, is adding new tech workforce and payroll data, which will allow employers to see where the workers they need are living.Noting the significant progress that the Administration has made to support science and technology, she even detailed how President Obama has done more for innovation than any other American President. “Simply put, I believe that President Obama has done more for innovation than any other President in history.”

As we discussed earlier, even though there’s abundant evidence that the Administration’s plans to push through its trade deals, the Trans Pacific Partnership and the Transstlantic Trade and Investment Partnership, are in trouble, the official messaging has been to keep pretending that the pacts are still moving forward smartly. Up to a point, that’s normal dealmaking; you try to create an impression of momentum and inevitability. But when the noisemaking is so at odds with facts on the ground, the degree of delusion starts to look embarrassing.